Adrian Michaels is Group Foreign Editor at the Telegraph Media Group. You can write to adrian.michaels@telegraph.co.uk and follow @adrianmichaels on Twitter.

Kevin Rudd was too populist for Australians

A tearful Kevin Rudd after he was ousted as Australian PM (Photo: EPA)

The demise of Kevin Rudd as Australia’s prime minister should remind politicians round the world that there are limits to populist, soak-the-rich gestures even in this spreading age of austerity.

Rudd’s sudden decline can be partly traced to his announcement of a supertax on mining companies. They make too much money, he was saying, and should be helping ordinary people while they try to climb out of economic trouble. In substance, it was no different from Barack Obama or George Osborne going after banks and banker pay.

But in Australia, the mining companies organised, and successfully roused discontent. A tax on mining profit would impair investment and jobs. To prove it Xstrata suspended some projects and Rio Tinto let it be known that it was considering making investments in other countries.

The large mining states of Queensland and Western Australia rose up against Rudd, while he may have registered a bit more support in other areas such as New South Wales.

That’s why you won’t find Boris Johnson, mayor of London, agreeing that banks should have levies imposed on them or that bankers should have caps put on their pay, even if bankers remain deeply unpopular in the UK. Populism will only take you so far, although Hugo Chavez hasn’t hit the wall yet.